Babylon 5: A Day in the Strife

The arrival of a new Narn representative on Babylon 5 forces G’Kar to make some difficult decisions. Franklin starts down a bad path. An alien probe excites the crew of the station.

This episode starts with Sheridan and Ivanova dealing with the transport guild. The station is being forced to take stronger security measures, and naturally this will lead to more time to get through customs, higher fees to pay for more workers and equipment, or both. The transport guild isn’t happy about this. Sheridan manages to defuse the situation (interesting way he does that, by the way), at least for the time being, but the central issues remain unresolved.

Na’Far arrives on Babylon 5 as the new Narn representative. Sheridan knows this could cause problems with the local Narn population and G’Kar, and refuses to act on this matter. Londo treats Na’Far in quite a demeaning way. Vir is disgusted by this and with Londo’s recent actions, which he doesn’t mince words about. In response, Londo claims his favor from Delenn that she agreed to for his help in A Voice in the Wilderness. This favor is to send Vir as the new Centauri representative to Minbar. Delenn is at first reluctant, but in the end agrees. Vir is rather upset by the news when Londo tells him. He wants to stay and help Londo and be there for him, but Londo insists and Vir goes to Minbar.

Garibaldi notices that Franklin may be using stims. When he invites the doctor over for dinner to talk about it, Franklin is very defensive and insists he isn’t overdoing things. Garibaldi eventually backs off. During this stressful day, however, Franklin resists using stims the first time, but later does use them. At the end of the day, he lies about this to Garibaldi. This is not a good sign.

A probe comes into Babylon 5 space, promising advancements in technology and medicine if they can answer a number of questions. If they fail to answer the questions, the station will be destroyed. The crew scrambles to figure out what they can on their own and send to Earth for the rest. In the end, Sheridan questions why an alien race would on the one hand offer all this advancement if they can answer the questions while threatening to destroy the station if they can’t. He thinks the alien probe is really sent to destroy others who are more advanced than themselves. This gamble quite annoys Ivanova, but it pays off. They don’t send the answers and the station is not destroyed. As the probe leaves, Sheridan sends a security-bot out to transmit the answers from there to prevent more problems from it. This of course means, he and Ivanova still have to go meet again with the Transportation Guild.

Na’Far tells G’Kar of the problems the Narn resistance is causing on their homeworld for normal Narns. He tells G’Kar the families of those on Babylon 5 will be harassed or worse if G’Kar doesn’t return home. Ta’Lon is there to protect Na’Far, but the longer he is with the other Narn, the more he questions what they are doing. When a Narn attacks Na’Far, Ta’Lon protects him and G’Kar is outraged at the actions of his fellow Narns. He agrees to return home. Later at a speech Na’Far makes, he argues what could be more important than the safety of their families? Ta’Lon replies their freedom. He and the other Narns convince G’Kar to stay.

Na’Far doesn’t like the Centauri, but he wants to protect his people.

Garibaldi’s little chat with Franklin about stims doesn’t go as well as he would like.

Poor Vir doesn’t want to go to Minbar as the Centauri representative. Actually, Londo won’t say it but I don’t think he wants Vir to go either, even if this was his idea.

Franklin, even if you don’t admit it to yourself, you have a problem.

The probe leaves without going boom.

G’Kar is happy to be convinced to stay on Babylon 5.

Ta’Lon is happy G’Kar is staying as well, even if he does have to cut himself to satisfy ritual.

I think Sheridan and Ivanova would rather deal with the probe than the transportation guild.